What can you say about this 4-century-old mosque that has not been said before? That it is beautiful and awe-inspiring? That it is loved and visited, photographed and filmed, and that its shadow is burnt into the very fibre of the true born Hyderabadi's being? Are we born with our senses preprogrammed to respond to the smells and sounds of those byzantine alleys and torturous bazaars? Do those spiral staircases form at least some of the double helixes of our DNA?

The Charminar is many things to many people - an instantly recognizable landmark for out-of-towners, a handy half-....

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